Building houses with 3D printing technology

Imagine if you could press "start" on a printer and watch your house take shape before your eyes. Well, it's happening already. From Shanghai to Amsterdam, from Los Angeles to London, the race is on to build the world's first commercially viable 3D-printed house. British architects Foster + Partners is going even further - it is printing a house for the moon.

We are told the technique has the potential to produce medical miracles and create just about any consumer goods imaginable. In construction, it's seen as a fast and inexpensive solution for providing shelter in areas of extreme poverty, or where disasters have occurred.

Architects also believe 3D printing is the key to the grand designs of the future, producing one-off, custom homes at a fraction of the cost of conventional building techniques. Potentially, it could make use of the mountains of rubbish we throw away as building materials.

In 3D printing, thousands of thin layers of material are printed on top of each other to form an object. The "inks" are most commonly plastic polymers and metals. The technology has existed since the 1980s although, until now, it has not been capable or cost-effective enough for commercial manufacturing.

"Expectations are high that these shortcomings are about to change," says professional services firm PwC, noting that of 100 industrial manufacturers surveyed, two-thirds were already using 3D printing.

Foster + Partners started its journey in January 2013, joining a European Space Agency consortium set up to explore the idea of a 3D-printed structure for human habitation on the moon, using lunar soil - known as regolith - as the building matter.